WASHINGTON — U.S. educators still suffer from too-low wages and a lack of professional respect, according to four new reports examining educator pay and school funding from pre-K through college. The National Education Association’s annual reports today show salaries continue to lag behind inflation. These poor wages are not without consequence: Too-low pay exacerbates the national teacher shortage, making it difficult for school districts to attract and retain quality educators while also worsening educator morale.
Thanks to strong advocacy by NEA members and some elected leaders stepping up, teachers received the most significant year-over-year pay increase in more than a decade. States such as California, Colorado, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oregon demonstrated significant progress in teacher pay, putting more money into educators’ pockets. Meanwhile, states like Montana and Rhode Island led the way in increasing pay for K-12 education support professionals. At the same time, Maryland, Nevada, and Wisconsin showed the largest increases in faculty pay at public four-year universities.
Despite this progress, much work remains to eliminate the teacher pay penalty, address inadequate pay for all educators, and finally make the investments necessary at the state and local levels to attract and retain quality educators in public schools. Additionally, in places like Arkansas, the increases in teacher pay were tied to legislation that took money out of public education and put it into the hands of billionaires eager to line their pockets, hurting students in the long run.
“In some states, educators are seeing long-overdue pay increases, thanks to union-led advocacy, but overall, educator pay is still not keeping up with inflation. This hard-won progress is now under threat from the Trump administration’s careless, callous, and reckless actions, and students will pay the price,” said NEA President Becky Pringle. “Their plans to gut public education will rip funding from public schools and roll back these very same gains to help provide competitive and professional pay to educators. These resources are desperately needed to ensure every student has access to every opportunity needed to succeed. What is happening at the federal level is not just an attack on educators—it’s an attack on every student and every family in every community of this country.”
The data released today includes “Rankings and Estimates,” a report NEA has produced since the 1960s, which is widely cited as an authoritative source on average teacher salaries and per-student expenditures. NEA’s “Teacher Salary Benchmark Report” provides information from over 12,000 school districts on starting teacher salaries and salaries at other points of the teaching career continuum. The “Education Support Professional Earnings Report” offers a pay breakdown for school support staff, also known as education support professionals, working in K-12 public schools and higher education. NEA’s “Higher Education Faculty Salary Analysis” examines full-time faculty and graduate assistant salaries at the national, state, and institutional levels. Additionally, NEA released financial snapshots for four demographics: teachers at the preK-12 level, higher education faculty, and support staff at both the preK-12 and higher education levels.
Data highlights and trends:
- In 2023–2024, the national average public school teacher salary rose by 3.8% to $72,030, with a projected 3.0% increase for 2024–2025.
- Despite these increases, average teacher pay has not kept up with inflation over the last decade, resulting in a 5% decrease in real earnings.
- The average starting teacher salary was $46,526, marking a 4.4% increase, the largest in 15 years, yet it’s still $3,728 below 2008–2009 levels.
- 16.6% of U.S. school districts offer starting salaries less than $40,000, a drop of over 10 percentage points from the prior year. However, approximately 69.9% of school districts still pay starting salaries below $50,000. Only 20.7% of school districts offer teacher salaries over $100,000.
- 87% of teachers expressed concern over low pay, and 40% work extra jobs. Nearly 30% of full-time K-12 support professionals earn under $25,000.
- Full-time faculty on 9- or 10-month contracts averaged $101,955, a 4.2% increase, yet 6.8% below pre-pandemic levels after adjusting for inflation.
- Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities earn 75 cents for every dollar non-HBCU educators make.
- Unionized teachers earn 24% more on average in states with collective bargaining, and education support professionals earn 7% more.
- Starting salaries and top pay for teachers and support staff are higher in states with bargaining laws compared to those without.
“As Donald Trump and Elon Musk attempt to take a chainsaw to public education so that billionaires can get another tax cut, our students will pay the price,” added Pringle. “Parents and educators know what works. We need to invest in smaller class sizes, more tools and resources, and build on the progress educators, unions, and state leaders have recently made to increase educator pay. Those pay increases have also been instrumental in addressing and mitigating the educator shortages plaguing our public schools. America’s 50 million public school students deserve strong and well-funded public schools—not the chaos and destruction Trump and Musk are unleashing on their education.”
For additional information about Rankings and Estimates and related NEA salary data reports, please visit www.nea.org/educatorpay.
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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, students preparing to become teachers, healthcare workers, and public employees. Learn more at www.nea.org.
